Silver Nanoparticle—A Promising Anti-Mosquito's Agent: A Review

Abstract

Mosquitoes play a key role as vector for different diseases including malaria, filariasis, and dengue fever. Prevention and control of mosquito-borne diseases is a key challenge of huge public health importance. Limited tools are currently available against the main pathogens and parasites vectored by mosquitoes. Therefore, eco-friendly and effective control of mosquito vectors is of pivotal importance. Nanotechnology is a promising field and offers a wide range of research innovation in industrial sector. Plant-mediated synthesis of nanoparticles seems promising besides other control approaches and has recently gained attention as a cheap, rapid and eco-friendly method to control mosquito vector populations. Nanoparticle like silver shows a promising bioactivity against mosquitos due its size, shape and its characteristics. These may lead to the successful reduction of vector populations, since the sub-lethal doses of these nanoformulations are toxic towards the Culicidae, but not to their natural enemies. Nanoparticles may also boost the biocontrol agent predation rates. However, the field of green metal nanoparticles has certain limitation. Therefore, further research is needed to elaborate the precise mechanism(s) of action of green-fabricated metal nanoparticles and the optimization of the green nanosynthetic routes, in order to develop large-scale production of eco-friendly nanomosquitocides.